The new recommendations and the study report of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights on madrassas triggered a major debate across the country. Protests are led by political parties who approach the issue through the lens of vote bank politics, as well as fanatics who wish to keep the madrassa system in place. However, no one wants to look into or examine the validity and gravity of the issue raised by the commission.
The National Commission for the Protection of the the Child Rights does not make orders or recommendations based on politics or hatred. It is a statutory body formed under Section 3 of the Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act of 2005 to safeguard children’s rights and other pertinent concerns of Child rights in the country. According to Section 13 of the CPCR Act, the Commission is solely responsible for the welfare of children under the age of 18 in the nation and has the authority and obligation to intervene in any child right violations observed. Further, the Commission is mandated to monitor the effective implementation of laws related to children, such as the POSCO Act of 2012, the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015 and the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009 to protect children from sexual violence and recommend necessary measures. In addition, the Commission is required to examine and analyse all laws, policies and systems currently in place in the country from a child rights perspective and call for action to address the issues therein. The Commission is a body authorised as a civil court to deal with a case under Section 14 of the CPCR Act.
Fundemental Rights only for Religions?
A large number of children in various states and Union Territories receive madrasa education. According to the websites of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs and the state governments, as well as other publications, the country now has 38,000 madrasas. Around 28,107 are recognised, whereas around 10,039 are unrecognised. However, considering the fact that there are madrassas even in small villages and remote areas, this number is considered unrealistic. Estimates from other sources suggest that there are more than two lakh madrasas with more than 10 lakh teachers in the country. Most of them are run with government support and unaccounted funds from abroad.
According to a report titled ‘The State of Muslim Education in India’ by Arun C Mehta, a former professor at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, 6.67 crore Muslims are enrolled in the upper primary level of madrasas in the academic year 2022-23. It is said that only 20 lakh students depend on madrasas for their education. Other sources speak of thirty lakhs. This means that only 2.99% of the total registered Muslim students attend madrassa education. The rest opt for modern education. Currently, many reports suggest that interest in madrasa education is declining in the Muslim community itself. For example, according to the Madrasa Education Council figures, the interest of the new generation in studying in madrasas in Uttar Pradesh is steadily declining. The number of students enrolled in secondary and senior secondary schools has declined by more than three lakhs in the last six years. In 2016, 422,627 students were enrolled in secondary and senior secondary school; by 2022, the number will be only 92,000, which means that there will be a shortfall of 3.30 lakhs in these six years. Poor quality of education, inadequate infrastructure, sexual and psychological abuse of children, lack of importance of madrasa certificates rising unemployment, and attraction to terrorism are some of the reasons for the decline in the number of students in madrasas. But no sooner had the states received the commission’s recommendation than there were protests in the country, citing the fundamental rights of religious freedom and minorities under Articles 25 to 30 of the Constitution. But those who raise their voice should bear in mind that these rights are not unlimited or unrestrained. Moreover, these fundamental rights should not infringe the other fundamental rights of people. The activities of the madrassas violate the rights of the children in many ways. As a result, the state is forced to restrict religious rights as the various rights granted to children in the Constitution are not being honoured. Article 25(2) of the Constitution allows the state to interfere in religious, economic and political activities. Therefore, any religious organisation should work in accordance with the laws of the land. The courts in India have the power to interfere when a citizen’s constitutional rights are violated. This has also been made clear in various judgements in the past.
Madrasas do not fulfil the fundamental right of children for an adequate education. The functioning of madrasas denies children not only a proper education but also a healthy environment and better opportunities for development. Madrasas focus on religious education in the name of modern education. As a result, the madrasa curriculum does not adequately prepare students for a broader academic education or integration into the modern workforce and limits their opportunities for socio-economic advancement. Moreover, madrasas play a significant role in inculcating a distorted worldview in students. They limit knowledge about the different perspectives, cultures and religions of the world. For this reason, madrasa students are unable to live in pluralism and are drawn to riots against other religions. In the study conducted by India Today in 2018 on the activities of madrassas in Kerala, shocking information has come to the outside world. Several madrassas in Kerala were found to be propagating radical Islamic Wahhabism, which is linked to global terrorism. The extremism is being infiltrated into the Muslim students of Kerala under the guise of hawala funding, especially from the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. Indoctrination of young people about the global goal of ISIS to establish a global caliphate has been found to motivate them to support ISIS and terrorism. However, the radical Islamic indoctrination is not limited to one centre in Kerala but is spread all over the country. Moreover, there have been many incidents of sexual and psychological abuse of boys and girls attending madrasas in the past and in recent times. Countless complaints in this regard are pending with police stations, national and state human rights commissions, child rights commissions and courts. Apart from harassment, there are many complaints of girls being discriminated against in madrasas. Such discrimination restricts and slows down the country’s efforts towards women empowerment and progress. In short, the madrassas are ruining the future of children and violating their various rights. Therefore, the educated and affluent Muslims provide modern education to their children. But under pressure from the religious leadership, the downtrodden among the Muslims send their children to madrassas.
What is wrong with the Commission’s position?
The recommendations are part of a report by the Child Rights Committee on the history of madrassas and their role in violating children’s right to education, titled ‘Guardians of Faith or Oppressors of Rights: Children’s Constitutional Rights of Children versus Madrasas’. Based on the Right to Education Act passed in 2009, the Commission has asked all states to provide free and compulsory education to all children in the country. It is the duty of the governments to ensure that all children receive formal education as defined in Section 2(n) of the 2009 Act. The section 5 of the Right to Education Act requires the state to provide free and compulsory education to all children without discrimination or prejudice and to ensure that children attend schools to receive formal education. In view of the above facts, the Commission, in the exercise of its powers under Section 13 (1) of the CPCR Act, 2005, is authorised to order necessary steps in this regard. On this basis, the Commission demanded that the children who are not receiving formal education should be given the opportunity to receive it, and they can be enrolled in schools. It is right that government financial support for such madrassas should be stopped, and unauthorised madrassas should be closed. The commission also demanded that the non-Muslim students who receive unscientific education in the madrassas should be transferred to schools while respecting the rights of the students. It is not about destroying or annihilating any religion. On the other hand, it fulfils the responsibility of moulding the future generation of the country with the right perspective.
Controlling Madrasas is not Limited to Bharat
The Commission’s recommendation to raise standards for madrassas and seek government approval, stop financial support for those violate rules and close them down is being propagated as a Sangh Parivar agenda. However, the fact is that the Child Rights Act and the Child Rights Commission existed even before the BJP government. There are doubts about the functioning of madrasas not only in India but also in many other countries. Restrictions have been imposed in these countries for security reasons and in connection with human rights violations. After the terrorist attack of 11 September 2001 in the United States, it was found that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda members involved in the attacks had undergone their training in madrassas. A statement by Donald H. Rumsfeld, then US Secretary of Defence, said: ‘Madrassas teach people to become terrorists and violent religious fundamentalists’. In July 2004, a report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States described madrassas as ‘incubators for terrorism’.
In 2021, the Sri Lankan government decided to close more than a thousand madrassas for encouraging terrorism. In 2015, the British government decided to place madrassas in England under state control because they instil terrorism in children. David Cameron, then British Prime Minister, said that the children learning in madrassas “have filled their heads with poison and their hearts with hatred”. The anti-radicalisation law, which was passed by the French parliament in 2021, prohibits children from attending madrassas. With the bill, the government has tried to crack down all illegal schools that offer religious extremism. The aim of the law was to promote the formal education of children. besides, the Chinese government regards Islam as a foreign religion that is destroying its culture. President Xi Jinping, after assumed power, took measures such as a complete ban on religious education, the control of religious scholars, the burning of the Koran, the destruction of mosques and cemeteries, the banning of the hijab, the abolition of Islamic practises and the ban on learning Arabic are being taken. In India, all citizens are allowed to follow the Arabic faith with all freedom, but this freedom is not unrestrained.
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